


we reckless dreamers

by nyavericked



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: First years as third years, Gen, just a lot of ryuseitai feelings tbh, ryuseitai trio feelings, they love each other and they're good boys that cry that make me cry :'(, they've grown up so well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-28 20:30:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15714546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyavericked/pseuds/nyavericked
Summary: Future fic. The weird trio that came to Yumenosaki and were suddenly dubbed heroes will be graduating soon. Old faces encourage them, traditions must be honored, and they'll get through it in the same manner they always have: together.in which Chiaki and Kanata are proud upperclassmen, Tetora, Midori, and Shinobu grow up, cry, get stronger, and sometimes family are the people who crash into your life when you least expect to be seen.





	we reckless dreamers

**Author's Note:**

> this piece was written over a year ago for supernova: the ryuseitai fan zine! i finally felt that enough time has passed that i can share it - i hope you all enjoy. 
> 
> as per always my recommended music for this piece: katawaredoki from the your name soundtrack. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsQMYKFHoZ0)

 

“Whaaaat? Morisawa-senpai isn’t here? It’s the day before our final year at Yumenosaki…! We even showed up at his apartment and everything!”

“That’s a surprise… he’s normally so punctual! He’s not even tasked with bringing Midori-kun here? Where could he be?”

“... even if it’s true, do you have to bring up such bad memories, Shinobu? Ah, thinking of those days makes me so tired I could die…”

 These children - they were always so noisy, weren’t they?

Kanata watched the three of them gather around the table in the living room of the small apartment that he shared with Chiaki, their excited chatter filling it with color. Even as he came in and brought them tea, smiling at the grateful little bobs of their heads with each soft clatter of a cup against the table, Kanata couldn’t help but think--

“‘Children’... you have gotten ‘taller’? But… your ‘hearts’ are also bigger now.”

Conversation paused - and Kanata wondered if in their time apart, had he started to say ‘weird things’ that the children did not understand again?

Peering up, he was surprised to find the three of them staring back at him, eyes bright.

“D-Do you really think so, Shinkai-dono…?” Sengoku spoke up first, nervous fingers wrapped around a small dolphin doll that wore a blue star charm around its neck.

Expression smoothing out into a smile, like the calm break of the ocean against a summer’s day, Kanata nodded. “I do not ‘say’ what I do not ‘mean’.”

He’d forgotten - what it was like to be looked up to.

Kanata settled on the floor, drinking his tea as the children continued on, excitedly discussing the new dawn that was about to break. Their final year at Yumenosaki Academy; that place of bloodshed and hardship.

The Yumenosaki that Kanata had known when he was young was a place that gave him treasures and then took them away. The peace that he knew among the Oddballs was brief, blissful, and then broken. There was just enough time to know happiness before it was stolen in the next breath. Kanata wouldn’t be able to trust again, not after that.

(A warm hand in his. The radiating softness and sincerity of the sun in front of him. “Then that is our promise, Kanata. In Ryuseitai, beside me, there will always be a place for you.”)

 … or so he’d thought.

 And the children in front of him, whose spirits were so bright and genuine that when Kanata closed his eyes, he could’ve sworn that he saw stars. They were heroes, too.

 They’d stolen the sea monster’s heart, and now he was fated to be with them forever.

 In the comfort of this place that he could call home, Kanata exhaled his blessing. “Puka puka…”

 The children - the young men - turned to him with hearts so full it threatened to spill over from the eyes. They echoed him, as if they’d chase their elusive senpai until he led them straight to the sea.

 “Puka puka…!”

 

☆☆☆☆☆

 

“Aaahhh, you really came to visit…!”

 It was not long ago that hugs were difficult for Shinobu to manage. Even on the graduation day of his upperclassmen, he remembered struggling to initiate them - but Makoto and Mao were just as patient then as they were now. Their arms were just as warm and welcome, too.

 “Of course! It’s your final week before graduation, right? We wanted to think again about how you’d grown…” Mao hummed faintly even as he gave an affectionate pat on Shinobu’s head.

 “Ahaha, that makes us sound kind of old though?” Makoto laughed, even as he gave a grin. “We heard it was your last solo airing as the leader of the Broadcast Club though…! So you don’t mind if we sit in, do you?”

 “N-Not at all!” Shinobu gave an eager nod despite his nervousness flaring up momentarily. “In fact, I’d be honored…! Ah, please watch and see how this Sengoku Shinobu has grown!”

 (“A-Are you sure? I’m to be the first one on the stage? The live is not about ninjas, nor is it draped in mystery, I… I don’t know if I should uphold this responsibility!” Shinobu protested as he held the outline for their live in his shaking hands. “I can’t set the mood…!”

 To his confusion, Tetora and Midori shared perplexed glances at one another.

 It was the new Ryusei Red who placed a hand on Shinobu’s shoulder and explained, as if the fact was plain as day, “Shinobu… You _are_ Ryuseitai’s moodmaker. You always have been. You can do it. I promise.”)

 “And that concludes the news for today…!” Shinobu announced into the mic, smiling at the thumbs up that Makoto flashed him. “Ahaha, some may not know… but it is this ninja’s last broadcast? You will be in good hands, Yumenosaki, but for this part to be over… It is almost bittersweet?”

A sheepish little brush of his bangs brought the soft jingling noise of the yellow star charm clipped his hair as it was jostled softly.

“So to my fellow idols and students, I… I have something to say.

 “Being an idol… is difficult - and sometimes it can be nerve-wracking, like making a phone call or going to a crowded place. But being on this journey… I never thought that there would be people waiting for me in the light… who’d hold out their hands so I could walk with them but I - I’m not afraid to be next to them anymore. If it’s them, I feel like I can do anything…!”

 If he was to be the moodmaker, please let him have the power to lift the spirits of all those who heard him - perhaps it was not like a ninja, but more like… a hero?

 “Ninjas, heroes, things like that… Normally only children talk about them, you know? And I was made to realize that… but by being this way - by being myself - I’ve managed to make a difference? I’ve managed to make people happy.”

 “That’s why… I really think it’s okay to be who I am now. That it’s okay to be me. I don’t have to hide anymore. Thank you, Yumenosaki’s Ryuseitai, for helping me find that.”

 

☆☆☆☆☆

 

“Excuse me, Takamine-kun, would you mind sparing a moment?”

 Immediately, Midori hesitated. Could he pretend that he didn’t hear the eager reporter who trailed at his heels on the way out of the photoshoot?

 Yet the reporter pressed on, seizing the opportunity to continue, “It won’t be anything too long - promise! We’re just looking to hear about what you have to say regarding Ryuseitai.”

 ‘Isn’t everyone…?’ Midori thought to himself, a frown threatening his handsome face as his right hand reached up to where the green-tinted locks of hair rested underneath the rest of his brunette strands.

 (“You’re sure, Midori? You don’t have to,” Tetora reminded him, even as the plastic gloves gave a resounding _snap!_ in his small bathroom before Shinobu handed him the tin with green hair dye.

 “I know I don’t have to… but I - I really think I want to.” Midori winced even as he looked anywhere but the mirror. ”But can you just do it before I change my mind?”)

 “Your story is funny, don’t you think? You enrolled in the idol academy course by mistake and yet here you are, three years later, about to graduate with a modeling contract with S*nrio…!”

 Somehow, instead of the comfort of his home, Midori found himself seated at a small cafe a short walk away from where he had his scheduled photoshoot. The reporter’s question made him pause, looking up from where his long fingers fiddled with the three charms on his phone.

 (Two small mascot charms - one of them made by Anzu. The last, a green star.)

 “A-Ah… It’s weird how that happens, isn’t it?” Midori answered, not quite able to muster the energy for a smile.

 “Your family’s a greengrocer, right? But now their son is an idol…! It’s like a Cinderella story, you know? Would you mind telling your fans what you think?”

 It was a lot - all at once, an attempt to get as full of an answer as possible out of the precious minutes spent over a glass of strawberry milk. Midori watched the reporter and tried again to refrain from a frown.

 “Being an idol is… a dream, you know? It’s a really fantastic thing… Everyone works really hard, to the point where I think that I stand out a lot, and not really in a good way…” Midori dawdled on his answer, his gaze flicking to the side. He remembered that tear-stained day where he’d told Tetora and that guy - those dreams were meant for people a lot more amazing than him.

 It was a typical answer that he gave a lot of reporters, whether it was seen as proper or not. It was the truth.

 “But I… I’m lucky for a lot of different reasons. Some people - they can go their whole lives without finding real friends and, if I’m being honest, I thought that would be me too. But Ryuseitai… Those guys… They see me - they see boring _me_ \- and they don’t look away.

 “Even if it’s a dream…. Even if it ends here, I’m glad that I got the chance to be a hero. I can say that I spent my days in a way that I don’t regret.”

 The days were closing in when these blissful days at Yumenosaki would end. Soon the clock would strike midnight on his Cinderella dream. Midori’s fingers tightened around the star charm on his keys.

 “And I’m really lucky that this fantasy became mine, that I could find a dream like this.

 “Enrolling might’ve been an accident but… this wasn’t a mistake. Me being here… it wasn’t a mistake. I wasn’t a mistake.”

 

☆☆☆☆☆

 

The roar of the audience was deafening.

 Even as the pounding in his heart rattled in his ribcage, as his lungs heaved in search of breath, as sweat rolled down the nape of his neck, Tetora threw one strong fist into the air as he concluded his contribution to the live with one final declaration:

 “The red flames are the mark of justice! Burning bright red, the sun of life! I am…. I _am_ Ryusei☆Red, Tetora Nagumo!”

 In front of him, all around him, the cheers of excitement provided his confirmation: every inch of him burned a blazing, undeniable, fiery red.

 “I… I’ve grown into a fine man! Thank you - for believing in me!”

 (Once, Chiaki had offered it to him in condolence - that color of the leader. Tetora denied it then and insisted that when he wore the truest color of heroes, he didn’t want to just be a chance.

 This was no chance. This was his rightful place - he could say that confidently now.)

 Backstage, he finally had a moment to collect his thoughts. Running his hands over the Ryusei Red jacket, Tetora let his fingers touch the familiar fabric that had rested on his shoulders for two years.

 ‘This is mine…’ he recognized, right down to the exact stitches and adjustment that none other than Kuro had fitted on him. ‘This is something that’s all mine.’

 Many things had changed. One day Tetora decided he wanted to shave down the sides of his hair, tuning out Shinobu’s yells. And.. Chiaki, Kuro, and Anzu had all graduated, leaving him with only footsteps to follow and the weight of the world on his back.

 Yet this jacket had sat with him through it all.

 (“What did you think?” Tetora asked Chiaki the day after their first live. One hand clutched his necklace, where a new black star charm rested next to the ring he shared with Kuro. The other risked wrinkling the fabric of the red jacket with how tightly he clung onto it.

 “Mm? What do I think?” Chiaki parroted, as if he was surprised to be asked. Though it was only a second before his gaze relaxed, his eyes so fond that Tetora thought he was going to cry. “I think…. you’re already surpassing me, Captain.”)

 “C-Captain?” The voice of a nervous second year interrupted Tetora’s thoughts - one of the new recruits of Ryuseitai after Chiaki and Kanata had graduated. His black jacket still sat on his shoulders, though the live was over.

“Ah, there you are!” Tetora greeted, warm as the sun in spring. “I was wondering if you’d run.”

 “I… I thought about it- That’s… That’s a lot of responsibility, you know?”

 Tetora let his gaze fall onto the uniform of Ryusei Red, the leader of the oldest unit in Yumenosaki Academy, then back up to the nervous Ryusei Black who would inherit it, just as he had.

 Is this how Chiaki had felt?

 With a flick of his wrists, he draped the red jacket to cover the black fabric of the one in front of him, much to the surprise of his astonished underclassmen.

 “For a long time, I was doing things to make others proud of me. Getting stronger, meditating, things like that… I thought that’s what it was like to be manly. But when you wear this, when you hear the rest of your team calling _you_ Captain… I promise, that’s when you’ll be able to be proud of yourself.

“This team has raised the spirits of many… but it’s done a lot for those of us on it, too. Please, take care, hero. I entrust my precious family to you.”

 

☆☆☆☆☆

 

Chiaki could recall countless nights as a child where he’d raced to the windowsill, sometimes just barely able to support himself on his quivering legs, and made the same wish on every shooting star: I want to be a hero.

 (Please, give me the chance to be a hero.)

 Underneath the night sky, they all gathered.

 All proud graduates of Yumenosaki, the former members of Ryuseitai met on the sand of the beach. Congratulations were extended to the trio who had just entered the world of adults, of proper idols, and now - they looked to him.

 Just like they did three years ago, they looked to their leader.

 “You know... “ Tetora breathed in, his shoulders back and his head facing directly as his piercing gaze met Chiaki’s. He was a little bit taller than him now. “You never forget the first person who looked at you, really _looked_ at you, and thought that you could be a hero.”

 The brunette paused - and he fought against the tears that brimmed his eyes.

 “Captain… Chiaki, for us, you were that person.”

 Running a hand through his hair, shifting awkwardly as his red star charm swayed from where it was tied at his belt loop, Chiaki worried for a moment that the emotion would cause the words to be stuck in his throat.

 Still, he had to try.

 “We five… There will be many more Ryuseitais that come and go. There may even be a time when we’re forgotten, part of a legacy much bigger than just us. Just like stars, we shine and then we die - but our light carries our story. We are all a part of that great, big sky. It is an honor to be part of something greater and yet…

“The five of us here - Nagumo, Takamine, Sengoku, Kanata and even my clumsy self - that is a Ryuseitai that will live on, that will beat in the depths of my heart until it stops. This… this is _my_ Ryuseitai, the one that shines the brightest to me, and so I…

 “I thank you. And I won’t say goodbye - not even now, for I swear that no matter where I go, I will always carry you with me.”

 Overhead, a flash of light danced across the sky: a lone shooting star heralded the beginning of the meteor shower.

 The others - his team - exclaimed in an awed chorus, hands raised to the sky to follow the trails of stardust that painted streaks against their galaxy.

 Chiaki allowed his gaze to rest on them.

 Staring at his team - his _family_ \- whose laughter filled his chest with so much warm it ached, so much joy he wondered if he would cry, Chiaki knew it in that moment--

 Kanata pointed which constellations reminded him of sea creatures.

 Tetora followed along, as if he too would see if he just believed.

 ‘You are all I’ve wished for my whole life.’

 Shinobu sat on Midori’s shoulders, hands stretched out to the sky as if he could catch the falling stars.

 Midori’s face broke into a smile that made his eyes crinkle gently.

 ‘You’re every wish I’ve made on every falling star.’

 Chiaki knew that he wanted this moment to last forever.

 ‘You’re my Ryuseitai.’

 

**Author's Note:**

> you ever just cry a thousand times over good good boys
> 
> also ryusei trio growing up is one of my fav things to write about so  
> here's a drabble in my collection about it: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7878826/chapters/19650607  
> here's an old headcanon thread in my twitter about it: https://twitter.com/sunwritten/status/790637533881249792
> 
> my enstars/writing twitter is still @sunwritten!  
> my fandom twitter (more regularly updated) is @nyavericked  
> feel free to follow/chat with me anytime, thank you!


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